Taste The Local Difference

Today I'm talking with Erika at Taste The Local Difference. You can follow on Facebook as well.

   

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00:00 You're listening to a tiny homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Erika at Taste the Local Difference. Good morning, Erika. How are you? Good morning. I am doing great. How are you? I'm good. Where are you located?  I am in Michigan, just south of Ann Arbor. Okay.

00:26 Awesome. I'm going to be talking to an old friend on Monday morning for the podcast who lives right near Ann Arbor. So that's kind of funny. That's great. Yeah. What a small world. Yeah. He, he's a musician and he's, uh, older than me. I'm, I'm 55 and I know he's at least 10 years old than I am. So he remembers when, um, music was something you got on records and eight tracks and it should be really fun. Wow. That's cool. Very cool. Yeah. It'll be really fun. I'm excited.

00:56 Um, so what's the weather like in Michigan this morning? Thankfully, it is actually pretty beautiful. It has been  quite hot and humid lately, so it's, it was nice. took a nice little walk this morning around my neighborhood and it was, it does seem to be getting a little bit cooler, but you know, what are you going to do? It's August.  It's pretty normal for this time of year.  Oh, for sure. And it's coming.

01:21 fall is coming. heard geese calling the other day. Some of our maple trees are starting to turn and that could just be the weather stress, but I really think we might be looking at an earlier fall. So that would be  welcome after this very hot summer we've had. I'm in Minnesota, so it's been hot here too. Yeah, definitely.  When I got up this morning, my husband had opened the kitchen window and the living room windows because our AC is broken.

01:50 Oh goodness.  was awake at like 4.30 this morning because I get up early and I got my coffee and I was  sitting in my living room, sipping my coffee and scrolling Facebook as I do. Everybody does these days.  And  I could hear the crickets chirping because the windows were open. It was just such a lovely way to start my day. Yeah, that sounds great.  It really was because usually the windows are closed because the AC is running and you don't want to let the mugginess in.

02:18 when you're running an AC. So  there's a blessing to our AC being out. I'm okay with it. It's true. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and your role with Taste the Local Difference and what Taste the Local Difference is and what you guys do. Yeah. So I am the Director of Impact here.  Which I love. I love that title.

02:41 Thanks. love it too.  And, uh, so what we do  is we do marketing for farms and local food and beverage businesses. And that also encompasses things like agritourism,  farmers markets,  restaurants, food trucks, et cetera, know, distilleries, craft beverage, anything along those lines.  And,  um, this is our 21st year.  So.

03:09 We started in Michigan, but we work with businesses nationwide. We also have Michigan's food and farm directory, which is really cool. And we are just big believers in local food and local food systems, local food economies, and really uplifting the people who grow and make food and beverage for other folks to.

03:36 enjoy. And so we really like to be able to help them with marketing education  and primarily marketing services. So folks can come to us for their websites, their e-commerce, you know, to do  full branding, like if they need, you know, a logo and a brand kit, we do marketing strategy,  email marketing  setup, social media, pretty much the whole gamut if it's under marketing and

04:05 Then what my role overseas  is, um, I do a lot of  the marketing education here as well. So I just was teaching a webinar last night for one of our partners.  And, uh, we also do what are called food systems impact partnerships. And so I will work with folks that are from like nonprofits.

04:30 governmental organizations, economic development agencies, universities, et cetera.  And  we